Members may wish to be aware that I will be publishing a response to the UK Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission today.

The role of the UK Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (The Commission) is to monitor the progress of the UK Government and others on improving social mobility and reducing child poverty in the United Kingdom.

The Commission is led by Rt Hon Alan Milburn and has nine Commissioners including a member from Wales and Scotland. The Welsh Member is Catriona Williams, Chief Executive of Children in Wales.

The Commission’s first annual report is due to be published on or before 22 October 2013. The Commission requested information from Welsh Government to inform the content of its report.

We have provided evidence to the Commission setting out how we are approaching these issues in Wales. We believe that children from every background should have real opportunities to thrive and reach their full potential. We recognise that without effective intervention and support children from disadvantaged backgrounds are much less likely to achieve to their full talent and potential.

Our response outlines a short narrative to each of the Commission’s questions. We set out the progress made against the key indicators in our Child Poverty Strategy and provide links to a variety of Welsh Government Publications.The evidence submitted includes:

Our commitment to improve the skills of young people in low income households;

Our commitment to reduce the number of homes where no-one works;

Our commitment to raising educational attainment of those from low income families; and

Our commitment to fair and equal access to services regardless of where people live.

The Welsh Government will be publishing a progress report on its Child Poverty Strategy this autumn. This will meet the requirements of the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010.

This statement is being issued during recess in order to keep members informed. Should members wish me to make a further statement or to answer questions on this when the Assembly returns I would be happy to do so.